COLLEGE PARK, Md. — The last time Maryland head coach Mike Locksley had to prepare to play against Penn State he was serving as the interim head coach of the Terps in October of the 2015 season, replacing Randy Edsall midyear. Maryland lost a heartbreaker to the Nittany Lions that day at M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore, 31-30. That was just one installment of the border-war rivalry between these two programs, which has heated up in recent years since the Terps joined the Big Ten.
But Locksley isn’t using the memory of that game nor Maryland’s 104-6 margin of defeat in their last two outings against Penn State as motivation for his team’s Friday night matchup against the Nittany Lions, rather the Terps are focused on righting the ship, getting back to how they played in the first two weeks of this season before falling on the road to Temple in their last contest, and starting conference play off on the right foot.
“It's Penn State week; it’s the start of a new season for us in terms of getting into conference play,” Locksley said Monday. “A great opportunity we have to be here at home, at the shell on a Friday night. We expect it to be a great crowd and we’re excited about the opportunity that we have to play a really good team in Penn State.
“This is a big game for us because it’s the start of conference play and we play in a tough league, so to open up with a team of Penn State’s caliber is very challenging, but I know our team is excited to face a good program like Penn State here at home. We’re hoping that our home crowd is very active and gives us a competitive advantage because it’s going to take all of us. We’re expecting it to be a four-quarter game, a 60-minute game and this time with us being able to execute the way we need to to find a way to win.”
With two weeks to prepare for Penn State after the loss to Temple, Maryland has emphasized getting back to executing properly and finding ways to win in critical moments of the game. In other words: do what got them off to a 2-0 with a 142-20 margin of victory.
“We just have to find what got us to that point and get back to that,” Terps junior running back Javon Leake said. “We started off fast, scoring a lot of points. And now we just ran into a game where we didn’t score as many points. So we just have to find what stopped us from doing that, go back and look at the film, watch it, correct the mistakes, and just come out this week and try to get back to that. I feel like it is a reset button. We’re going into conference play and, of course, we want to start 1-0. So it’s definitely a big game and we just have to try to get it done.”
Using the bye week to not only rest and recharge, but also get back to the basics, Locksley’s team “sticking to the script” and focusing on playing to the best of their ability as opposed to game planning for anything the Nittany Lions might do specifically.
“We rarely worry about our opponent as much as we do about our execution,” Locksley said. “I think we’ll stick to that script. The things we’ve got to do to prepare — we’ve got to practice the right way. Those are the habits and behaviors we talk about. How we study our opponent, we’ve got to put together a great plan as a coaching staff and make sure that our guys have a really good comfort level with being able to execute the things that we’re going to need to be successful.”
The area where the Terps would like to see the biggest turnaround in terms of success is on the offensive side of the ball. After averaging 71 points per game through the first two weeks this season, the Terps only mustered up 17 while struggling to keep drives alive and score in the red zone in their loss to the Owls.
“We definitely worked red zone and short-yardage type plays,” Terps quarterback Josh Jackson said. “We made that an emphasis because they can be very big and decide whether you win or lose a game.”
Part of “sticking to the script” includes re-instilling confidence in Jackson as the Terps’ bonafide starter. Locksley erased all doubts during his Monday press conference, stating that “Josh is our starting quarterback,” and adding that backup Tyrrell Pigrome will continue to only be used in specialized situations.
Locksley doesn’t seem too concerned about Jackson’s poor performance against Temple, and expects the Terps’ signal caller to bounce back strong against Penn State.
“I think that that’s kind of an outlier game for Josh,” Locksley said. “He’s a guy that has made really good choices and been really disciplined. He’s had a good couple days of practice last week, we got back to some of the fundamental things we maybe reinstalled and reinforced some of the decision-making and how and why those decisions need to be made based on where his eye discipline starts and finishes. He’s had a good week of work last week and then [Sunday] he started off pretty good and we feel really good about the way he’ll go out and execute if we continue to practice the way we’ve practiced thus far.”
With classes canceled Friday in College Park and an influx of Penn State fans that are sure to travel to Maryland for the game, the atmosphere inside Maryland Stadium for the matchup between the Terps and Nittany Lions is expected to be electric.
Jackson likely won’t be intimidated, as he is no stranger to big games with large crowds, having played in several during his time at Virginia Tech. His experience in these situations is something the Terps are hoping works out in their favor on Friday night.
“What you realize is that it's still just 11-on-11,” Jackson said. “It doesn’t really matter how much noise there is or how many people there are. It really goes out the window once the game starts. It’s tunnel vision in a sense.”
